In a compressed 48-hour news cycle that revealed the fault lines running through the AI industry, OpenAI struck a deal with the US Department of Defense to deploy its models on classified military networks — just hours after rival Anthropic was effectively blacklisted by the Trump administration for refusing to do the same.
Anthropic had been negotiating with the Pentagon for weeks. The sticking point: the Department of Defense wanted unrestricted access to Claude across all "lawful use cases." Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei drew two firm lines — no use for fully autonomous weapons, and no domestic mass surveillance of Americans. When the Pentagon delivered its final offer, Amodei said the company could not "in good conscience" accept the terms. President Trump responded by directing all federal agencies to cease using Anthropic technology, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designating the startup a "Supply-Chain Risk to National Security."
OpenAI moved fast. Within hours, CEO Sam Altman announced OpenAI's own Pentagon agreement — but with a notable detail: OpenAI's deal includes exactly the same safety guardrails Anthropic had insisted on. Altman said the Department of Defense agreed to prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.
The public reaction was swift and ironic. Social media movements calling for users to dump ChatGPT drove Anthropic's Claude past OpenAI's ChatGPT to the top spot in the US App Store. Anthropic's user base has grown over 60% since January 2026.
Separately, OpenAI completed one of the largest private funding rounds in history: $110 billion, with Amazon contributing $50 billion, Nvidia and SoftBank $30 billion each, valuing the company at $730 billion pre-money. OpenAI now counts 900 million weekly active users and 50 million paid subscribers.
The week crystallised something the industry has long known but rarely stated plainly: the race to scale AI is inseparable from the question of who controls it, and under what conditions.
Source: CNBC — OpenAI strikes deal with Pentagon, hours after rival Anthropic was blacklisted · TechCrunch — OpenAI raises $110B · MIT Technology Review
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